Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martinis an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician. Martin came to public notice in the 1960s as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later as a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor, as well as an author, playwright, pianist and banjo player,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth14 August 1945
CountryUnited States of America
I first thought maybe I'd do a banjo presentation record, where I'd play a couple of songs and get a bunch of other players to do the rest. Then I realized I had enough of my own songs to do an album of them.
As much as I remember, I just thought, I want to sing a song that starts normal and ends crazy.
I think there are people out there writing original bluegrass songs, but it's hard to get them out on the air.
In my banjo show with the Steep Canyon Rangers, I do do comedy during that show. It'd be absurd just to stand there mute and play 25 banjo songs.
I would get records by Earl Scruggs... I would tune my banjo down and I'd pick out the songs note by note. Learned how to play that way. I persevered. There was a book written by Pete Seeger, who showed you some basic strumming and some basic picking... And I kind of worked out my own style of playing.
I don't think comic timing is the same as music timing, but I definitely find that I've learned from just writing in general that songs can be narrative without having a story.
The banjo is such a happy instrument--you can't play a sad song on the banjo - it always comes out so cheerful.
Right now we're teaching them that the game is fun. If they learn it's fun, they always go back to it again in clinics and in schools.
It doesn't behoove us not to ask these questions. It makes us look like fools.
I thought if I had a Twitter feed and say I had a following of a 100,000, that means 100,000 of them would be interested in my book. It was logical, but it didn't turn out to be true. It turned out if I had a Twitter feed of a 100,000, four of them were interested in my book.
I would have felt a little funny if another actor was playing this role.
While my fervent hope is we can get the entire amount ... I think we need to have some idea what we would lose.
It's kind of a dream come true, because we've always loved these films. We've loved this character, and now we have the opportunity to not remake the movie, but to play these characters. It's like playing Hamlet.
It takes time though for owners and trainers to invest that additional purse money to start cultivating that better racing product.